GETTING SHORTER

(tcomeau) said:

http://www.westonaprice.org/caustic_comments/spring2004.html

GETTING SHORTER
John Komlos, professor at the University of Munich, has been charting
trends in height throughout the world for most of his career. He notes
that in Northern Europe over the past twelve hundred years, human
stature has followed a U-shaped curve: from a high around 800 AD to a
low sometime in the seventeenth century, and back up again. For
Komlos, height provides a kind of biological shorthand for a society's
well-being—and an indication of the amount and quality of food
available to the people—and this shorthand indicates that America was
a good place to live in the eighteenth century. Both white colonists
and black slaves were a good three inches taller than the average
European of the time. During the Civil War period, the average
American height dropped somewhat, but by the end of the nineteenth
century, Americans had regained the distinction of being the tallest
peoples in the civilized world. Since 1955, however, the average
height of Europeans and Asians has increased while the height of
Americans has remained flat or even fallen.

So what if it had remained flat? It must level off eventually.

Quoted message said:

Today Northern Europeans
are three inches taller than the average American—Dutch men average
six feet one and Dutch women average five feet eight.

A worthless and invalid comparison. The racial makeup of the United
States has changed profoundly since 1955. America has had the highest
immigration rate of any country in the world since 1955.

Quoted message said:

Americans also
rank 28th among industrialized countries in longevity. The decline in
height runs across all classes and racial groups.

uh huh

Quoted message said:

Komlos and his
colleagues recognize that diet plays a major role in determining
height,

I dunno I grew up on a horrible diet by any measure and at 6'1' I am
taller than my father and a couple inches shorter than my brother. I
think genetics is a more important factor but a severely malnourished
person could have stunted growth.

I don't know of many centenarians that are over 6'0 so height can not
be all that important. Large people seem to check out sooner, kind of
like large dogs.

Quoted message said:

noting that both the wealthy and the impoverished in America
today consume mostly processed food (The New Yorker, April 5, 2004).

Big news flash

Quoted message said:

Where they are wrong is the suggestion that eating more fruits and
vegetables will make a population taller.

Well considering most people do not eat a lot of fruits or vegetables
I don't see the relevance. A diet of 70% good carbs 20% good fats not
saturated animal fats and 10% protein is not going stunt anyone's
growth.

Quoted message said:

To attain the imposing
height and general good looks that characterized Americans during the
Second World War,

Well I believe that has more to do with cross-breading. You go to
Europe and the women are much more beautiful on average than an
American women. But Italians breed with Italians French with French.
Its the same with dogs pure breed is much better than a mutt.

Quoted message said:

we'll need to start eating animal fats again,

Again? I wasn't aware that it ever stopped. Has McDonalds replaced
their ground beef patty?

Quoted message said:

and
drink the kind of milk that we had during the first half of the

Quoted message said:

twentieth century—raw, whole milk from pastured cows.

Do all these other countries with greater height drink a lot of milk?
I don't think so.

"jt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well considering most people do not eat a lot of fruits or vegetables
I don't see the relevance. A diet of 70% good carbs 20% good fats not
saturated animal fats and 10% protein is not going stunt anyone's
growth.

20% is very low, few of the countries with the highest life expectancy go
that low. You run the risk of various deficiencies (vitamins, essential
fatty acids, taste...).

Quoted message said:

Well I believe that has more to do with cross-breading. You go to
Europe and the women are much more beautiful on average than an
American women. But Italians breed with Italians French with French.

You do have a weird idea of racial purity in Europe... FYI, France is about
as multi-racial as the USA. The tradition of being a country of immigration
here is at least as strong as in the USA, the country has always known waves
of immigrants, from the Polish and Italian of early 20th century to the
North and Black Africans in the 1950s and later, and the various invasions
in medieval times.

Quoted message said:

Its the same with dogs pure breed is much better than a mutt.

You have obviously never seen an Eurasian or African-caucassian metis
woman... Or even mixes with North African or Indian people...
As for animals, there is such a thing as hybrid vigor. Pure breeds tend to
be a lot more fragile than mixed-breeded animals, because cross-breeding
promotes genetics diseases through indirect incest. Just check the overall
health of islanders, it's often catastrophic. Mutts often live longer, and
don't suffer from degenerative diseases as much as pure breeds.
For instance, Iceland is one of the country in the world with the least
amount of inter-breeding; noone emigrates to Iceland... As a result, Iceland
now sells its population files to research groups on genetic diseases, since
they have an insane amount of these. Life expectancy in Iceland is not that
great either, just compare with France...

Quoted message said:

Again? I wasn't aware that it ever stopped. Has McDonalds replaced
their ground beef patty?

I think the problem comes with the *kind* of animal fats. More specifically,
what the cattle is fed with. Compare hens fed with corn cakes and the ones
fed with flax seeds or the traditionnal way (grain and worms). Compare pigs
fed with acorns and pigs fed with corn cakes. The omega-3/omega-6 ratio is
completely reversed. The saturated fat content skyrockets in the industrial
version, while it remains reasonnable (around 1/3) in the traditionnal
version.
For instance, traditionnal black pigs that are fed acorns, as is the case in
some areas of Spain, is quite high in o-3, reasonnable in o-6, and balanced
(1/3 each) between SFA, MUFA and PUFA. Pigs fed with flaxseed have the same
caracteristics.
Subventions towards farmers should be *cut* when they feed their cattle with
junk, and the total amount distributed among farmers who agree to use either
traditionnal methods or flaxseed. That's the right thing to do, both
nutritionnally and economically (the Third World is going to beat us on the
cheap low quality meat anyway).

"tcomeau" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

http://www.westonaprice.org/caustic_comments/spring2004.html

GETTING SHORTER
John Komlos, professor at the University of Munich, has been charting
trends in height throughout the world for most of his career. He notes
that in Northern Europe over the past twelve hundred years, human
stature has followed a U-shaped curve: from a high around 800 AD......

Hmmm

What evidence does he cite?

If you have a look in the dungeon of castles from the eleventh & twelfth
century you'll see the imprints in the wall made by prisoners who were
chained to the walls. (Hastings castle in East Sussex UK is a very good
example of this).
From these imprints it's long been cited by historians that in those times
people were about a foot shorter than they are today.